Innovation Insurgent – Jorge Barba

Hi, my name is Jorge Barba. I long ago discovered that I had a passion for novelty. Always keeping up with the latest, always wanting to know what’s next and more importantly what I can make happen.

I’m fascinated by invention, creation, imagination and the power of the mind that drives all human achievement. This blog is my intention of exploring these passions and hopefully contribute some lasting value to the world.

MORE DETAILS ABOUT ME:

I’m an entrepreneur. Have started two companies, and have been a part of two startups. In my early days out of college, I worked as both as an information technology and internet marketing consultant with businesses in the San Diego California area and Baja area of Mexico. I’m currently a partner at Blu Maya, an innovation consultancy I started with a couple of my friends to help ordinary companies become extraordinary.

When I’m not working I like to play and watch basketball, play video games, practice Ninjutsu, read widely and think.

“I can accept failure but I can’t accept not trying” – Michael Jordan

Like every entrepreneur I’ve had my ups and downs and have failed quite a few times but have no problem celebrating my failures:

A few years ago I founded an ecommerce company, BCNow, with a couple of friends. We created a couple of ecommerce stores that never became anything worthwhile. I learned a lot here!

I joined a friend of mine in her celebrity baby clothing startup, Tuni&G, where I wore both the CTO and CMO hats for two years. The company had to be shut down in the middle of the recession. This was a crazy time because our brand was on every celebrity magazine and made it into both Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, with no marketing budget whatsoever. All word of mouth.

After Tuni&G closed, I joined Kids Entertainment startup The Jumpitz Corporation as its Social Media Strategist for almost two years. It later got sold off to Nickelodeon.

In 2008, I launched a project with the city of Tijuana Mexico called Tijuana Pinta Tijuana! which failed miserably because of a fight over ownership of the idea with the Government.

In 2009 I launched a community project for the city of Tijuana www.conocetijuana.com (think Yelp in the US) in close collaboration with other agencies. The project went through design and development but was left to die because of lack of funding. There was also a political battle over the rights of ownership of the project which eventually provoked me to close the project.

My burn the rules, take-no prisoner approach to everything has gained me a reputation as an ‘Innovation Insurgent’. This moniker was given to me by my amigo Jonathan Amm from @ThinkTank_, and have adopted it ever since.

What you won’t find on this blog

You won’t find maps, how-to’s or silver bullet ideas that will make you a gazillionaire. This is a blog for Game-Changers. People who are willing to shake things up because they’re not content with the way things are done.

What you will find on this blog

You’ll find lots of uncommon sense unconventional ideas on strategy and innovation. There’s no way around it, if you’re out to do things better than they are you’ll need to be creative, and that means unconventional ideas reign supreme.